16 Oct My First Year at Glovo

Today is a special day

Today is a special day. I’ve been meaning to write this article, so I’m excited to get this out there: a peek into my first year at Glovo as an employer branding specialist.

So far I’ve always gone with the flow, making life-changing decisions following my gut instinct. For some background, you can read more about my experience moving to Spain and how I came across Glovo in my previous article.

Before applying, I remembered that I had already seen Glovo’s bright yellow color and green hot air baloon logo. I dug deeper to find more information about the company on Glassdoor and LinkedIn. I also checked out their social media handles to see what they were all about.

After reading positive employee feedback online, discovering a company culture that aligned with my values, and a location that had always attracted me I decided to give it a shot.

After the first four interviews with my future stakeholders and manager, I was sold. Everyone was so transparent, fun, and enthusiastic about Glovo — it was contagious! I loved how candidate-centric the experience was, for a company still so small.

On September 9th, I received and signed my offer letter.

Ready, start, Glovo!

On October 16th, I walked through Glovo’s office doors in Barcelona’s Poblenou district to begin my 3-day orientation. I joined my onboarding group and took my seat. The onboarding team was enthusiastic, passionate, and eager for feedback and questions.

As part of our orientation, we also got to be “Glovers” (how we call our couriers) for a day, delivering orders so we could get to know the product from the backend. During the exercise, I flexed my limited Spanish and learned that you can order ANYTHING on the app (like a 70€ Indian restaurant meal, that was heavy to carry ahah).

I was delighted that we were given the chance to experience every aspect of the product, to get a more holistic view of our jobs.

And the surprises kept coming.

On November 6th, the day of my birthday, the Glovo People team surprised me with a birthday card and cake. I was astounded, I had only started less than a month ago and I didn’t remember telling anyone about my birthday! I couldn’t believe how cool and special they all made me feel.

In my first month I also got to travel to a conference, almost singlehandedly managed Glovo’s LinkedIn, re-branded Glovo’s profile across key channels, and helped build its new career site.

It was awesome.

I have to admit that, albeit all this sparkle, my first three months were also pretty brutal. There was lots of work to do. We celebrated each success but there was still so much to get done on the employer branding side.

In my first couple of months, I organized a listening tour to see what our status was on employer branding at Glovo. After setting up meetings with coworkers on the People (HR) team, it seemed like everyone was doing their own employer branding work independently (not atypical for a start-up). So I made it my mission to connect the dots.

I took over existing projects and embarked on new ones with other departments, establishing a continuous flow of information between our stakeholders and I.

From specialist to generalist

In my previous position I developed specialist skills, handling brand awareness and recruitment marketing in as part of employer branding. In short, I mostly stayed in my lane within talent acquisition. At Glovo, I switched gears and became more of a generalist as I further integrated with the TA team and collaborated on their KPIs for hiring.

Now, you should know that typically an employer branding specialist wears three hats: Talent Acquisition, Marketing, and PR. We tie these departments together and align on brand strategy to stay consistent throughout our channels.

I got to know each stakeholder in the respective teams and kept continuous communication to stay on top of overlapping project that could be of interest to all parties, without stepping on each other’s toes.

At times I was a nervous wreck trying to figure out next steps for myself, I threw myself in situations where proactivity and fast-thinking were key. Challenges came tumbling toward me like an avalanche and tight deadlines were on the menu daily. But I’ve grown so much that I can’t even believe it. I’ve developed more professionally in two months at Glovo than I had for a whole year at another organization.

My manager Mati, Glovo’s Global Director of Talent Acquisition, made sure my onboarding was straightforward. As we built Glovo’s employer brand from scratch — I felt completely trusted to take the lead and own my projects and employer branding work. With his direction, lots of patience, and everlasting good vibes he’s been a north star in guiding my development. From the get-go, he gave me the autonomy and trust to conceptualize and execute high-impact projects. He provided direction on hiring needs and business priorities, and gave me the tools and contacts to do my best work. I owe it to my manager for handling my mini panic attacks, keeping a positive attitude in the face of adversities, and acting in my best interest.

Our team achieved amazing results. We launched LifeAtGlovo, we starkly increased our followers on LinkedIn, we had a steady stream of cool content, and a Glassdoor rating we were proud of. We presented these achievements and more at our weekly global company stand-up.

It’s not just a job, it’s an adventure

Working at Glovo has proven to be more than a job, it has been an adventure.

The values at Glovo are both breathed throughout the air in our offices and woven into the business strategy. They act as key players in the organization’s global growth and its road to sustainable profitability. It was all going magnificently.

Then, in March COVID arrived in Spain.

The pandemic hit us hard. I was worried for our team and business as a whole, on the outside I saw major corporations laying people off while the rest trembled in uncertainty. What would happen at Glovo? How would changes impact both our mission and our brand?

We went through some tough times and made hard business decisions that affected many employees, some of which my dear friends. It was an emotional and stressful time, with many of us working with a damage-control mindset. The ambiguity definitely affected my mental health as I worried for the future, but I kept a positive mindset.

At Glovo, people responded to the crisis with a positive and proactive mindset. They either took difficult news gracefully or rolled up their sleeves. Our values of Good Vibes, Glownership, and Care reigned supreme.

Now, Glovo keeps growing and is on a strong path to sustainable profitability in its markets. We also realize that people are at the heart of everything we do. For this, my team is constantly finding new ways to connect employees to their organization through storytelling.

My team and I have achieved amazing things, from seamless branding across job boards and social media to top talent attraction through recruitment marketing efforts.

What did I learn?

A major lesson I learned was to believe more in myself and shoot higher. Some of the projects I worked on this year were definitely challenging and it was stressful at times, but I credit it for my fast growth and learning.

I’m grateful for all the trust I’ve received and the freedom to execute with full support. Since Day 1 I’ve seen myself reflected most in Glovo’s values of Good Vibes and Gas; taking every challenge as an opportunity and always bringing fun, humor, and positivity to the workplace.

Glovo has been a rollercoaster, and I’m here for the ride.